I'm more than happy to participate in a technical interview and I always prepare the best I can. However, I find it odd that technical interviews don't work both ways. The interviewer can ask you to solve problem x, but if you ask the interviewer to solve problem y (fair play, right?) I suspect you would be shown the door.
Interviewer: "Can you show me on the whiteboard how you would invert a binary tree?"
You: "Of course." Writes on whiteboard.
Interviewer: "Excellent!"
You: "Your turn. Can you show me on the whiteboard how you would implement a priority queue first with O(1) insert and O(n) remove complexity, and then with O(n log n) insert and remove complexity."
I think even better would be to solve a problem on the whiteboard WITH the interviewer: one which the interviewer did not know or prepare an answer to.
- First, it would reflect the type of problems you may have to solve in the role you're interviewing for.
- Second, it demonstrates your interpersonal skills, your ability to de-construct, understand and then solve the problem at hand.
- Third, it demonstrates how you work with others to solve a technical problem.
- Finally, it puts both the interviewer and interviewee on the same level. It's not so much of "you v.s. me", but a "we". Hopefully, by the end the interviewer thinks: "Hey, I'd really like to work with this person. They're really smart, solved the problem faster than I could, they were very easy to work with, etc."
I think this would make technical interviews more fair, more fun, and at last, representative of real work you would do in the role as I doubt the interviewer will want to solve the 8 queens problem under pressure either.
> I think even better would be to solve a problem on the whiteboard WITH the interviewer: one which the interviewer did not know or prepare an answer to.
wow, that's a great idea. I would love that interview. In addition, they should solve a problem with an engineer that would be their junior and their senior, to show how they contribute to those situations.
Interviewer: "Can you show me on the whiteboard how you would invert a binary tree?" You: "Of course." Writes on whiteboard. Interviewer: "Excellent!" You: "Your turn. Can you show me on the whiteboard how you would implement a priority queue first with O(1) insert and O(n) remove complexity, and then with O(n log n) insert and remove complexity."
I think even better would be to solve a problem on the whiteboard WITH the interviewer: one which the interviewer did not know or prepare an answer to.
- First, it would reflect the type of problems you may have to solve in the role you're interviewing for.
- Second, it demonstrates your interpersonal skills, your ability to de-construct, understand and then solve the problem at hand.
- Third, it demonstrates how you work with others to solve a technical problem.
- Finally, it puts both the interviewer and interviewee on the same level. It's not so much of "you v.s. me", but a "we". Hopefully, by the end the interviewer thinks: "Hey, I'd really like to work with this person. They're really smart, solved the problem faster than I could, they were very easy to work with, etc."
I think this would make technical interviews more fair, more fun, and at last, representative of real work you would do in the role as I doubt the interviewer will want to solve the 8 queens problem under pressure either.